


Comb through

by dragonesdepapel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-21 15:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11947554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/pseuds/dragonesdepapel
Summary: The strands brush her neck again, the pencil skitters away to the other side of the room, and Pidge is one slight inconvenience away from giving up on this project altogether.





	Comb through

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be silly thing to get a sense of the characters but some feelings got mixed in there. I don't know if I succeeded but I liked it so here it is.

Pidge sighs as another strand of hair falls over her shoulder, blocking her line of vision. At least that's all it does. If it were any longer it would be in danger of getting stuck in the wires. Still, she doesn't feel particularly lucky as she stands upright to brush it aside  _again_.

Hunk's voice stops before she can do much else. "Everything alright over there, Pidge?"

"Yeah, it's just my hair. It keeps getting in the way."

He shoots her a look from where he's working in the other side of the room. Lance, who is helping him out, turns her way too.

"Wow, I hadn't noticed it had gotten so long."

She snorts. "This is nothing, it used to reach my waist."

Once upon a time she wouldn't have even considered shoulder length to be long hair. Now she can't deny that there is a  _huge_  difference between that and the cut she had when she joined the Garrison. If she's being honest, she hadn't noticed it until now either. The other paladins like to joke that she often misses anything that isn't directly in front of her computers. It looks like they are right.

She tries getting back to work but it's not too long before her hair distracts her again.

Starting to get irritated now, she moves away from the machine she has been examining. She looks around until she finds a discarded pencil sitting on her workbench. Grabbing it, she gathers her hair and twists it up into a bun. She pushes the pencil through it and lets go. Satisfaction fills her for a grand total of five seconds because it falls apart as soon as she takes a step back to her current work space.

The strands brush her neck again, the pencil skitters away to the other side of the room, and Pidge is one slight inconvenience away from leaving everything as it is and calling it a day.

She knows it's silly to give up over something like this. She also knows that it's not really her hair she's upset about. But it certainly isn't helping her deal with all the pent-up stress she has been dealing with these last few days.

Part of it is her own fault. She has been keeping herself busy and avoiding sleep a lot lately. Ok, she's been doing it a lot morethan _usual_  lately. It's not like she's doing it on purpose though. She gets distracted, that's all. There's just so much to do. There are so many upgrades she could introduce to the lions, so many data that still needs to be analyzed, so much to learn from Galra and Altean tech.

Sure, they've been doing ok so far. Their current plan is to help as many planets as they can while they work on a bigger, better plan to defeat Zarkon once and for all. The first part is going pretty well. There hasn't been much progress on the second one. And it's not like they can sit back and do nothing while they figure it out. They have come too close to be bested by Zarkon's forces plenty of times, and Pidge intends to be as prepared as she can to stop it from happening again. If that means sacrificing a few hours of sleep, so be it.

Besides, she still hasn't found a single lead on her dad's whereabouts, and the one she has on Matt hasn't gotten her anywhere yet. So yeah, she doesn't have time to spend worrying about her hair. Or any part of herself that isn't going to help them defeat the Galra for that matter.

She realizes the conversation has died out at the other work station. Silence isn't common when in company of her friends, so it makes her focus her attention on them. She catches the end of the look Lance and Hunk exchange before they both approach her. Hunk picks up the pencil on his way there.

"Allura must have some hair ties to spare, right? Want me to go ask her?" he says as he hands it back.

"That would be great, thanks" she answers. Her voice betrays nothing and she's grateful for that. She knows her friends would make this a bigger deal than it has to be.

"No problem, be right back."

Pidge watches him leave and turns to put the pencil back on its place. Lance makes himself comfortable by sitting on a corner of the bench that's miraculously free of stuff. Usually she would tell him to get off anyway. He's not the most graceful person around, and he could damage something by mistake. She doesn't have the energy to argue though, so she lets it slide even as he starts kicking his feet around like a little kid in a seat that's too tall for him.

"I could cut it for you. I cut my own hair, you know? It's the only way to ensure I look as good as I do" he says, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"No, that's ok. I like it this way." It's true. She isn't sure about a lot of things about herself, like why she hasn't told anyone her real name yet, or why she insists on wearing her brother's glasses, but she knows this. "I just forgot it was so...inconvenient." 

"Yeah, I don't know how Allura does it. How does she even manage to fit all of it under her helmet? I'm telling you, it's gotta be some kind of Altean magic."

Pidge chuckles. She doesn't feel like getting back to work until Hunk is back, but she needs to do  _something_  with her hands. Clearing up the mess on her bench seems like a good idea.

"And wouldn't it be uncomfortable?" Lance asks, apparently still deep in thought about the logistics of Allura's hair.

Pidge picks up a clutter of wires and starts untangling them. "Maybe. But it must work great as a cushion" she offers. With the amount of time they spend crashing into things, it probably comes in handy. Fiddling with the wires keeps her occupied, but it feels like she isn't making any progress. She decides that it's not worth it right now.

Lance picks them up as she sets them down and starts working where she left off. "Isn't it too warm?"

"Allura's? I don't think so. Mine didn't make a difference unless it was already really hot."

Lance makes a pensive noise. "But hers is so... _big_." He has finished disentangling the wires and is now taking great care in organizing them by size. It's not exactly the way she would do it but she appreciates it nonetheless.

The data chip she has been looking for all week sits in the place the wires had been. She really needs to clean this place more often. Yet another thing to add to her list.

They have tidied up most of the space by the time Hunk is back. He raises the hair tie in victory as he enters the room.

"Here it is! This is the one she had on hand, but she told me she will stop by your room later with more." 

"Thanks, Hunk" she says with a smile.

He tries to give it to her, but Lance takes it instead.

"May I?" he asks, doing an elaborate bow.

Pidge doesn't need help tying up her hair. It might be shorter, but she can still do it. And if she didn't, she should learn to do it herself. She can't depend on her friend to do it for her all the time. Hunk and him have already wasted so much time helping her out.

But Lance looks so earnest, and it'll only take a few seconds. 

"Sure" she says as she turns around.

She expects him to make a comment about how tangled it is. She doesn't think she brushed it this morning. Or the morning before. She's always too eager to leave her room and start her day. But he keeps quiet as he gathers her hair and twists it into a bun.

She had forgotten how nice it felt to have someone's fingers running through her hair. Her mother used to tie it for her some mornings. The ones she had stayed up too late the night before and she had to drag herself to the kitchen to have breakfast. She would lecture her on the importance of a good night of sleep as she did it. It was mostly an inside joke since she usually stayed up almost as late as Pidge. Matt would chime in while he sipped from blackest coffee he could tolerate. Their father would only roll his eyes at the display. He had given up trying to get his family to bed at reasonable time a long time ago.

Lance works slowly, making sure to be careful. After a moment she feels him put the hair tie in place. He stays quiet for a few seconds, and Pidge imagines he's judging his work. Finally, he steps back.

"All done! It looks pretty good if I say so myself."

Pidge laughs. "Sure, because that's what I was most concerned about here, in the middle of space." She forces herself to face them again before continuing. "But seriously, thank you guys."

She feels mildly embarrassed that she's gotten so emotional about  _hair_  of all things but whatever. She has seen both of them getting emotional over less.

"No problem buddy" Hunk says. He pats her on the shoulder as he walks toward his station. 

"Yeah anytime! Maybe I could try a braid next?"

Once again, it's Lance's hopeful look that gets her to say yes without thinking much about it. She watches him pump his fist in the air. Sometimes she can't believe she's friends with such a dork.

She bends over the open panel again but she doesn't reach inside right away. She tries tilting her head a few times first. Everything stays in place, and the tightness at the back of her head is a comfort she hadn't know she had missed.

Yeah, this will work.


End file.
